Ruth A. Johnston
Undergraduate student
Matriculated in 1981 (class of 85) in Annapolis.
Ruth Johnston 2019
List of Publications
- A Companion to Beowulf (2010)
- Re-Modeling the MInd: Personality in Balance (2015)
- All Things Medieval (2011)
- Excavating English (2013)
- Speak Like Rain (2018)
- The Love of God (2018)
- Rain in Season (2018)
A Companion to Beowulf (Book)
Year of publication: 2010
Publisher: Pannebaker Press
Genre: literary analysis
Description: This is the only book-length student guide to Beowulf. It covers the historical setting, the events in the poem itself, literary elements that students might need to cite in a paper, the Anglo-Saxon language, religion, and many other things. The last chapter talks about Tolkien's ties to Beowulf. There is also a library-bound edition, published in 2005 by Greenwood Press, under my former name Ruth Johnston Staver. I bought the paperback rights and set up Pannebaker Press first to issue an affordable paperback.
Publication Links
Buy on AmazonRe-Modeling the MInd: Personality in Balance (Book)
Year of publication: 2015
Publisher: Pannebaker Press (self-published)
Genre: personality psychology
Description: Re-Modeling the Mind: Personality in Balance starts with a challenging proposition: what if human personality is best understood by looking first at nature and animals? We know that nature's systems are self-balancing, and we know that insects, animals, birds, and insects are born knowing things. Like animals, we carry templates of safety and danger that are inborn---hard-wired---in a very rough outline. Unlike animals, our templates of safety and danger are primarily about how to stay safe from each other, since we are our own greatest predators. Our brains are also part of the natural world and some of its physical laws apply. Like a natural system, the brain seeks efficiency, which means the right balance between habit and chaos. From all this emerges the predictable patterns we call personality. "Re-Modeling" means both creating a new model for how we think about personality, and using it to improve the way we manage our own personalities.. The book uses Carl Jung's framework for outlining how the mind takes in and organizes information, and it also uses the Myers-Briggs personality types that many readers are familiar with. However, while the types are recognizably the same, the new model presents different reasons for why they exist, what they mean, and how they work....
Publication Links
Buy on Amazon, paperback or KindleAll Things Medieval (Book)
Year of publication: 2011
Publisher: Greenwood Press
Genre: encyclopedia of material culture
Description: Two volumes, all about the material culture of medieval Europe. It's an ideal resource for people who are trying to imagine the Middle Ages for fiction or role-playing games. List of Entries Agriculture Alphabet Animals Armor Arthur, King Astrolabe Babies Banks Barrels and Buckets Beekeeping Beggars Bells Beverages Books Bricks and Tiles Bridges Calendar Castles Cathedral Church Cities Climate Clocks Cloth Clothing Clothing Accessories Coal Compass and Navigation Cosmetics Crusades Dance Drama Embroidery Eyeglasses Fairs Fasts Feasts Fish and Fishing Food Forests Funerals Furniture Games Gardens Glass Gold and Silver Guilds Gunpowder Hair Hats Heraldry Holidays Hood, Robin Horses Hospitals Houses Hunting Hygiene Iron Jewelry Jews Kitchen Utensils Knights Latrines and Garbage Lead and Copper Libraries Locks and Keys Machines Magic Maps Medicine Mills Minstrels and Troubadours Monasteries Monsters Music Muslims Numbers Painting Parchment and Paper Pens and Ink Pilgrims Plague Poison Pottery Printing Prisons Records Relics Roads Roland, Song of Saints Salt Schools Sculpture Seals Servants and Slaves Ships and Boats Shoes Sieges Spices and Sugar Stone and Masons Tapestry Taverns and Inns Tools Tournaments Universities Wagons and Carts Water Weapons Weddings Weights and Measures Women Zoos
Publication Links
Buy on AmazonExcavating English (Book)
Year of publication: 2013
Publisher: Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop
Genre: language history textbook
Description: Excavating English is a curriculum designed for ages 12 and up. It explores the multicultural roots of the English language from 4000 BC to present day. The text provides over 150 pages of information, trivia, word games, activities and Internet links (including a playlist of supplemental videos). The first chapters give an introduction to linguistics, phonetics and phonology. The text then traces English from the shores of the Black Sea (Proto-Indo-European) through the history of the Germanic peoples, the Danes, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans, and the great wordsmiths of the Renaissance. The history continues as English crosses the ocean to America, then is influenced by immigrants from all over the world. The text is not only informative, but is lively and interesting, and the activities included after each chapter make the curriculum very interactive.
Publication Links
Buy on AmazonBuy in digital form at my sister's website
Speak Like Rain (Book)
Year of publication: 2018
Publisher: Pannebaker Press (self-published)
Genre: poetry textbook
Description: Speak Like Rain defines poetry as "art made with words." This art is made with elements of sound and image, and the text goes through first sound techniques of the English language, then how images are used. It is illustrated throughout with classic poems and some of my poems, when they were appropriate for teaching purposes. (Poems by Bill Salter A79 and Rob Crutchfield A82 are also used as examples.) In the homework, there are some activities and many questions for essay/thought. I include some basic analysis of spoken poetry at the end.
Publication Links
Buy on AmazonThe Love of God (Poem)
Year of publication: 2018
Publisher: Modern Age
Description:
Publication Links
see poem at Modern AgeRain in Season (Book)
Year of publication: 2018
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: poetry collection
Description: My poems to date. Digital only, no cost.